Larch for cladding

[MattyF]

How should I store the milled green timber cladding? It would be a lot to sticker - would that be necessary? Should it be kept indoors once cut?

As Les says and keep out of the elements , cool dry place with a bit of air flow would be ideal ... I’ve banged up larch cladding green though and it’s barely moved on the three barns / sheds I’ve built.
It’s probably the best choice as you know but I find Douglas and WRC a lot easier to mill.. especially dry although I’m not fond of dry Douglas saw dust!

[bilke_user]

Might seem a lot to sticker but you'll get  a lot of stickers from edging your flitch boards, probably a lot more than you will need.
 I've got 1200 4.9m douglas boards that I milled last year, to be used as cladding for a shed this year, that have been stored on site in three stacks with a rough 3x2 frame around them covered  top and 1/3 sides with black polythene.  They have been stickered every 2nd board & 10 boards wide.......any wider and the forklift forks won't lift them.  Boards are fine.  Do watch out for sawdust sticking to the boards......I've now taken to using Vortex blades to make dusting down the boards a lot less tedious

[peds]

On 06/06/2021 at 10:45, monkeybusiness said:

We are going to extend our house and (subject to planning) are hoping to clad the outside with larch. 

 

How's it working out for you? I'd love to see some pictures if you ever got round to it, or is it still in the early stages?

If anyone else has some larch jobs to share, I'm all eyes!

 

Thinking of sticking larch on the gable end of this.

 

[monkeybusiness]

16 minutes ago, peds said:

 

How's it working out for you? I'd love to see some pictures if you ever got round to it, or is it still in the early stages?

If anyone else has some larch jobs to share, I'm all eyes!

 

Thinking of sticking larch on the gable end of this.

 

We essentially lost last year with family bereavement and planning department inertia - this year it will happen though!!! 

[peds]

Got to love the planning department, they are very good at what they do. Which isn't much.

 

Hope things work out for you this year better than last.

[agrimog]

mill your larch as green as you can, the wetter the better, and be prepared to change the band regular, its very abrasive on the teeth, provided you watch the grain  orientation sticking it up green wont matter to much, it'll dry out to a beautifull silver grey, sometimes with a pinkish tinge, but not always, and get ready for the "itch", the tiny fibres off it when milling are a bloody nusiance that takes days, if not weeks to get used to........but irs worth it in the end, 70-100 year timber, very under rated in this country

 

[trigger_andy]

1 hour ago, agrimog said:

mill your larch as green as you can, the wetter the better, and be prepared to change the band regular, its very abrasive on the teeth, provided you watch the grain  orientation sticking it up green wont matter to much, it'll dry out to a beautifull silver grey, sometimes with a pinkish tinge, but not always, and get ready for the "itch", the tiny fibres off it when milling are a bloody nusiance that takes days, if not weeks to get used to........but irs worth it in the end, 70-100 year timber, very under rated in this country

 

Ive heard about these kinds of issues with Larch often and have yet to experience any of them. Saying that Ive milled under 50 tons so only just starting out with it but so far I must have got lucky. I do go through bands more than I would do with Oak, but not any more than I would if I was milling Spruce. 

[Squaredy]

6 hours ago, trigger_andy said:

Ive heard about these kinds of issues with Larch often and have yet to experience any of them. Saying that Ive milled under 50 tons so only just starting out with it but so far I must have got lucky. I do go through bands more than I would do with Oak, but not any more than I would if I was milling Spruce. 

I also have never had problems with it. 

 

Agreed it is harder to mill than the UK hardwoods.  As is Pine, but I would say easier than Douglas Fir.  Bought my first lorry load of Larch at least ten years ago, and probably had 12 loads since.  Worst case I find is big logs with horrible resin pockets.  These can be a pain to cut.  Other than that milling Larch up to about 20 inches diameter always seems OK.

 

Not sure about the itch from the fibres - never noticed this.